The X Factor has been having problems this season. Tabloid headlines about the inadequacies of new judges, Autotune accusations, voting controversies and misbehaving contestants might all be part of the usual soap-operatic storylines, but they have been compounded by falling ratings.

Viewing figures have dropped by about two million and ITV’s flagship show is regularly trumped by its kinder, gentler BBC rival Strictly Come Dancing.

But Simon Cowell’s glorified karaoke competition may be about to do the one thing its critics would never have imagined possible: produce a credible artist.

I am no fan of The X Factor. It might make good Saturday-night television, but its lowest-common-denominator instincts have been responsible for some of the most clichéd, over-produced and yet oddly flavourless manufactured pop of recent years. So, when I heard the debut single from last year’s runner-up, Rebecca Ferguson, I had to do a double take.

Nothing’s Real But Love is a slow-burning, tremblingly emotional ballad that reaches for glimmers of hope amid the ordinary defeats of a hard working life. Ferguson’s voice is ripe and real, and she sings with intensity and restraint as she feels her way through an organic, timeless arrangement of acoustic guitars, pianos and organ, building to heartfelt gospel soul chorus: “Maybe the man in charge doesn’t like my face, but then this world’s not always good, and nothing’s real but love”.

Ferguson wrote the song (with established composer Eg White) and delivers it with qualities of command and vulnerability that wouldn’t shame her heroines, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone. It’s a gorgeous recording. And I never thought I would write that sentence about an X Factor vocalist.

“It’s real life,” says Ferguson of her debut. “We’re all trying to find something, everyone’s looking for the missing piece, and we pursue the wrong things thinking that’s where it’s gonna be.”

A beautiful 25-year-old of mixed race, she has a shy smile, a big laugh, and a Liverpool accent so thick she should come with subtitles. “Coming off X Factor and seeming to be on top of the world, with this money and a record deal, I had to take stock. I love singing and writing, but it doesn’t make me who I am. I realised the things that were most important, I already had: my family, my kids.”

Ferguson was runner-up in the 2010 series of The X Factor, coming second to favourite Matt Cardle. “I’d be lying if I said that, when I was standing on that stage in the final, I didn’t want to win,” admits Ferguson. “Everybody wants that petal drop. But, in the long run, I knew it would be better for me. It gave me time to get things right.”

I have met Cardle. He’s a nice guy, with a beautiful singing voice and a background in indie bands. There was much talk in Cowell’s company Syco and their music partners Sony about Cardle’s potential to become a credible singer-songwriter in his own right.

But then they launched the campaign for his solo debut last month with a single written by X Factor judge Gary Barlow. Run For Your Life reached only number six and an over-produced album, Letters, created with all the usual X Factor collaborators and producers, was kept off the top by Noel Gallagher.

When it comes to establishing artistic credibility, it is clear that Simon Cowell hasn’t got the first idea. So how to explain Ferguson’s album, Heaven, a gritty collection of soulful, self-penned songs about real emotional issues?

“I say no,” explains Ferguson. “If something doesn’t fit with me, I won’t do it. Because who’s going to believe it if I don’t?”

The odd thing is that she seems quite soft and shy, yet she has a fierce Liverpudlian pride and integrity beneath the surface. She turned down all the songs the record company offered her.

“The music was really cheesy, and I was like, 'Sorry mate, I’m not singing that.’ I actually sat down with Sony and said, 'Look, this is a joke, youse are saying you want me to be a credible artist but getting other people to write my songs.’ I’ve been writing songs for years. And in the end they completely backed off and just let me make the album.”

For me, the biggest failing of The X Factor and the rest of the TV cabaret competitions is that, for all their huge viewing figures and massive resources, they have turned out a bunch of lame pop stars with fly-by-night careers. In 12 years of UK reality TV singing shows, Will Young and Girls Aloud are arguably the genre’s only interesting stars (and they were early successes), while Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle are the only British competition winners to have made any impression in America.

In the UK, we continue to produce world-beating superstars such as Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, Adele and Florence & the Machine. But none are the kind of artists who could have come through a singing competition.

“There are too many people overthinking things and having too much input,” says Ferguson. “Credible artists aren’t out raving on a Saturday night in posh West End clubs, letting everyone else decide their musical direction. They’re normally quite introvert, they’re musical in their minds, they think a bit differently and are a bit quirky. They are what they sing, and that’s what people buy into because it’s real.”

These are admirable sentiments, but of course Ferguson took the route of auditioning for The X Factor because her own attempts to make her way in the music business had met with failure at every turn. “I’ve been messed around a lot. This business will eat you up. ”

Her upbringing was not an easy one. “My mum wasn’t well, my dad wasn’t around, we had no money. It sounds so clichéd, but it’s true. I was passed from pillar to post really; it was quite traumatic. So I’d say I’ve had it hard, but it made me strong.”

Ferguson pursued a musical career but became pregnant at 17. By the age of 21, she was a single mother with two kids and thought her dreams were in tatters. “People told me my life was over.”

She studied to become a legal secretary, graduating with distinction in 2009. But, by that time, she had passed the X Factor auditions with a tearjerking performance of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come, while her mother and children watched from the side of the stage.

“It was kind of my last chance. And that’s why I would never knock it. You can’t go on a show that’s made you famous and then say, 'I didn’t like it.’ You’re wearing a pretty outfit, you’re driving a nice car – you weren’t saying that the other week. Take it on for what it is. I seen it as an opportunity and I got lucky.”

Ferguson’s debut single is out on November 20. Her album will be released by RCA on December 5. “I’m scared about how it will be received. I’m a very vulnerable singer: I just try to gather up all my emotion and sing it. But I know this business is very hit-and-miss. I didn’t want to overthink it or aim at a specific market. At no point did we even speak about who this is for. That album is me. I’ve done my best. I hope people like it.”